It didn’t take long for Anaheim City School District’s trustees to snub Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks’ July 16 ruling that the district had unlawfully rejected the reform effort, supported by almost 67 percent of Palm Lane Elementary School’s parents, to restart the chronically underperforming school.

University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank recently sent a letter to the governor, Scott Walker, asking him to veto a provision in the state’s new budget that would weaken the tenure provisions of the university’s faculty. The Wisconsin Legislature wasn’t making a value judgment – at least not in the budget –

The late, great Jack Kemp, an architect of the Reagan tax cuts, used to say, “Without capital, capitalism is just another ism.” Capital is the plant, the machinery, the computers and trucks that businesses invest in to become productive and efficient providers of goods and services.
So it’s strange that Hillary Clinton

For many Americans, these are – still – frustrating times. Never mind the prospect of a fresh financial crisis or a collapse of our tenuous position in Iraq. Even assuming things trudge on as “normal,” the new normal is a drag. And a key part of our irritation around that fact concerns our disappointing national leadershi

In hip, and even not-so-hip, circles, markets, restaurants and cultural festivals across the country, local is in. Many embrace this ideal as an economic development tool, an environmental win and a form of resistance to ever-greater centralized big business control.
Yet when it comes to areas being able to choose their urban form and fo

Nuremberg, Germany – I am writing from a commemoration, hosted by Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, the California Judges Association and Creighton University in Nebraska, of the 70th anniversary of the war crimes tribunal after World War II. The Allied powers’ trial of Nazi political and military leaders constituted t

President John F. Kennedy is known for the truism: “Life isn’t fair.”
JFK’s Democratic Party, however, has tirelessly tried to make life fair. It’s such an infectious concept, both parties seem intent to make life fair, if not for everyone, then at least for those whose votes they seek. Who could be against

I’m angry at Paul Hebert. The star of “Wicked Tuna,” the popular reality show that airs on the National Geographic channel, was indicted this week on charges of defrauding the federal government for $44,000 in disability benefits.
The allegations almost certainly will reinforce the all-too-prevalent view that many, if n

The presidency is a lonely job. In moments of world-historical gravity, the commander in chief can find the weight of the world resting solely on his shoulders.
In such dark nights of the soul, it’s not unusual for the chief executive to turn to a trusted confidante or an eminent Washington graybeard for solace and advice. So it wa

The condition of Los Angeles’ deteriorating sidewalks, like its dilapidated water and other infrastructure, has been atrocious for years. But in the union-dominated town, a crafty Democratic councilman found a way to make improvements at significantly less cost through – privatization.
Los Angeles received more than 19,000 si

When a Major League Baseball team drafts a star player out of high school or college, that athletetypically he will start out in rookie ball and work his way up through the minor leagues team management thinks his skills are ready for prime time.
The same is true for politics.
Very few successful politicians start out in the U.S.

What’s Rand Paul doing? Well, he’s drawing headlines with his plan to take on the tax code – complete with a meme-worthy publicity stunt: guiding a chainsaw through the reams and reams of regulations stacked up, as Republicans long have agreed, against the American people.
But the bigger picture for the Paul campaign ha

Racial and economic inequality may be key issues facing America today, but the steps often pushed by progressives, including minority politicians, seem more likely to exacerbate these divisions than repair them. In a broad arc of policies affecting everything from housing to employment, the agenda being adopted serves to stunt upward mobility, s

The federal highway trust fund soon officially runs out of money unless Congress authorizes more funding for roads and bridges. But the bill that is being pushed by Democrats and some Republicans is starting to look like a Republican Party Dunkirk that could infuriate conservative voters and even wind up costing the GOP the 2016 election.

Maria Konnikova is not someone Donald Trump would typically describe as “a loser.” Fluent in Russian and English, she writes authoritatively on psychology and culture in prestigious publications ranging from the Atlantic to Scientific American. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, she received her Ph.D. in psychology from C